[Commlist] CFP: Alphaville Special Issue – 100 Years of Disney

CFP: Alphaville Special Issue – 100 Years of Disney

In celebration of the Disney Company’s 100th anniversary on 16 October 
2023, Alphaville is announcing a Call for Papers for a special issue 
dedicated to examining what a century of Disney entertainment means. 
This issue intends to look at how Disney has evolved, what the current 
debates are around it (i.e. how the “live action” remakes are being used 
to address past issues of gender, race, and class), how its different 
facets – live-action and animated shorts and features, merchandising, 
theme parks, television (to name the major ones) – function as parts of 
a whole, and how Walt Disney’s persona is still interwoven throughout 
this despite his having been dead for more than half the company’s 
history. As an organising theme for the issue (since “100 Years of 
Disney” is impossibly broad), the task for the papers is to think about 
their chosen focus in relation to how the tensions between Nostalgia/the 
Past and Modernity/Futurism have manifested in Disney’s entertainment 
outputs. After all, Disney’s integration of Nostalgia with Modernity has 
played out within Disney in myriad ways throughout its history, going 
all the way back to Walt’s Laugh-O-Grams studio (1921-23) and its “Jazz 
Age Fables”.

Likewise, the themes that are central to this examination of Disney are 
also about how Disney is building its future based upon its past. After 
all, this is a company that has itself always focused on combining the 
past (via ideas of “nostalgia”) and the future as a way to address its 
audience. Usually, these tensions have come about via the interplay 
between its use of the latest technologies to tell ancient/timeless 
stories. It has also tended to present the possibilities of the future 
via optimistic visions of technological promise. This tension between 
Nostalgia/the Past and Modernity/Futurism is central when looking not 
only at Disney as an organisation, but also at how Disney itself is 
celebrating/commemorating its 100th anniversary. It is hoped that, by 
assembling a collection of papers which look at different aspects of 
Disney in relation to the issue’s guiding theme, a more nuanced 
understanding of what Disney is, how it has evolved, and how it has 
contributed to Western popular culture, will be achieved.

Though some papers have already been selected, others to fill in the 
gaps are now being sought. These gaps can be filled by looking at some 
aspect of one of the following topics:

- Walt and Roy Disney – the foundations and relationship between the 
brothers who founded the company; growing the business, as well as their 
legacy (individually and jointly)

- Disney Animation – the development of the studio and its relationship 
with Pixar Animation; the impact of Disney on the animation industry

- The Disney Theme Parks – from creating the concept of the theme park 
(as opposed to amusement park or fairground) to the way that the theme 
parks have supported the company in myriad ways, from income to 
synergistic links

- Imagineering: Before and Beyond – the significance of technology 
throughout Disney’s history, which intersects the parks, studio content, 
and marketing

- The Disney Brand – globally recognised and significant in terms of 
fandom, quality, and brand identification

- Consumer Products and Merchandise – this has been used by Disney for 
most of its history to communicate itself directly to its fanbase, and 
has been used throughout this time not only to generate income and offer 
an emotional connection for customers/fans but also (in the words of Roy 
Disney in 1931) to keep audiences “Mickey Mouse Minded”

- The Business of Disney – a history of acquisitions and its approach to 
doing business, past and/or present

We will of course be open to receiving abstracts on topics beyond those 
listed here, particularly those that engage with the expansion and 
development of an aspect of the Disney Company.

If you are interested in contributing to this special issue, please send 
a 300-word abstract, 3–5 keywords, and a short biography by 15 September 
2023 to (a.davis /at/ hull.ac.uk).

Authors will be notified of decision by 6 October 2023. Following 
acceptance, authors will be required to submit their completed articles 
of between 5,500 and 7,000 words in length that fully adhere to 
Alphaville Guidelines, MLA and House Style by 5 January 2024. Articles 
will undergo peer-review.

Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media

https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha

Please note that Alphaville is a diamond open access peer-reviewed 
journal. No payment from the authors will be required.


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